A homeless man loses his life on the streets of NY

[Bruce59]

Being homeless on the streets of N.Y., or any city in this
country is a fact of life. You may or may not have heard about
the homeless man killed early yesterday mouning. It seems
he went to the aid of a woman who was being attacked and was stabbed for his efforts. He lay there on the street
for an hour, bleeding to death while people just passed by.
When he was being stabbed there was no one around to
see what happened, still 5 min, later there were people
just passed by, I guess they thought he was just another
drunk passed out on the street, one man stopped and turned him over looked at him then walked away. finally
I guess someone called 911, when the EMTs arived it was
to late, the homeless man was dead. In this day of cell phones you think someone could have called 911. And then
you have to ask yourself why the woman who was able
to get away didn't call for help?

Now this reminds me of something that happed in, I beleive it was around the early 1960s on the streets of N.Y.
A young woman was being attacked on a street with
apartments on both sides of the street. It was said that at
least 50 people heard her cries for help and no one would
come to her aid or call the police, they just shut there
windows and pulled there drapes while she died on the street, because her neighbors did not want to get involed.

[NoRemorse]

They've done several studies on this. The prevailing finding was that most people assume that someone else already called for help or will call for help.

I could google links to it but I don't remember the specific book I first read it in.

[Hanzo]

I'm kinda curious, did the woman he helped ever come forward? I would think she had to of. Otherwise, how would we know that he was coming to her aid if there was no one around to witness it?

[TinDragon]

The first person to see him came out of a nearby house, took a picture on his cell phone, and walked away.

911 showed up for a completely unrelated call about an hour and 20 minutes after he got stabbed.

[Bruce59]

All was caught on a security cam. Although it was not very clear, you can see the man run up the street to were the couple are, a short struggle
then run back toward the camera and fall to the sidewalk.

[Splash0341]

People are getting more and more nosey but they dont wanna get involved with **** or have to deal with their o so stressful lives.

this kind of **** happens all the time. remember the last year about this time that elderly black man that was struck by a car and just layed in the streets and died. and then six month ago that lady that choked to death in front of a crowd on a subway.

people dont give a **** no more and then they wonder why their communities are **** and going down the drain. lack of Motivation not enough people out there taking charge of ****.

GET INVOVLED PEOPLE!

Semper!

[jetdawgg]

@Bruce59

The city streets have always been brutal. Often there are stories like this, but NY'ers do come to the aid of others. I personally have gone into burning 5 story buildings twice to save people.

Getting involved is kind of tricky in the city as only the crooks have guns because of gun control. So the people there generally feel helpless or in the least insecure

[Bruce59]

point well taken, I wasn't picking on N.Y. city, I grew up in N.J.

[MOUNTAINWILLIAM]

One of the contributiong factors for not giving aid in this type of situation is due to the threat of the "helper" being prosecuted for injuring the perpetrator. Another would be the potential witness being hauled into court, having all of their personal information basically made public while the miscreant's info. is protected (the witness is open to reprisal by friends of the criminal). That's generally the way it works these days.

Tis truly a bad situation.

[Quinbo]

The good samaritan act is probably 20 years old now. If you render aid you can not be prosecuted. Just walking by you should be. The only by you get is if someone is already there trying to help. That shouldn't prevent you from helping the helper.

Here where I live it is against the law ... if you witness an accident or see someone in need of assistance and don't attempt to render aid you will go to jail. Not the other way around.

[montana]

its about doing what is rite....how hard is it to dile 911...
was driving home one day saw smoke boiling up....as i drove past a neibors guse i saw a lady just outside her door with a matress on fire...i stoped and helped her get the rest of the bed that was on fire out of the house and put out....caused by faulty wiering...made sure no fire was in the wall....made sure she was alright then headed home....next time i went to town people telling me i did something outstanding....told um bull shert.....its what your spose to do....
sad when sombody acts in a was you should they come out with hero crap....to sad that society has sunk that lowlike Ker said....people who dont help should do time

[Dragonscript]

I read this story a couple days ago on the BBC and thought of the irony of the previous NYC article i had read, which talked about how New Yorkers use less energy per person due to population density and how everybody else in the country should be more like them.

When i was stationed at Cherry Point, a lance coolie and his wife next door got into a domestic dispute and the wife came over to ask for help. I was on recall duty at the time so i wasn't there, this took place in the evening, and she was afraid to go back over there so she asked my wife to go get her car keys. So my wife, not knowing any better, went over there and tried to get her car keys but when she go into the house the guy started to yell at her to get out, so she left without taking the keys.
When the MPs showed up, this was base housing, and took everybody's statements. The next day my wife had to report to the MPs, the wife had refused to make any charges but they were going to charge my wife with trespassing, when she went for the keys, since the lance coolie never gave my wife permission to come into the house. "Luckily" the guy had other issues, i think he did something to get a court martial, so the charges were dropped but this incident soured my wife and I to helping people we don't know that well.

[Zulu 36]

I read this story a couple days ago on the BBC and thought of the irony of the previous NYC article i had read, which talked about how New Yorkers use less energy per person due to population density and how everybody else in the country should be more like them.

When i was stationed at Cherry Point, a lance coolie and his wife next door got into a domestic dispute and the wife came over to ask for help. I was on recall duty at the time so i wasn't there, this took place in the evening, and she was afraid to go back over there so she asked my wife to go get her car keys. So my wife, not knowing any better, went over there and tried to get her car keys but when she go into the house the guy started to yell at her to get out, so she left without taking the keys.
When the MPs showed up, this was base housing, and took everybody's statements. The next day my wife had to report to the MPs, the wife had refused to make any charges but they were going to charge my wife with trespassing, when she went for the keys, since the lance coolie never gave my wife permission to come into the house. "Luckily" the guy had other issues, i think he did something to get a court martial, so the charges were dropped but this incident soured my wife and I to helping people we don't know that well.

How the hell could they prove a trespassing charge when the idiot's wife gave your spouse permission to enter?

I readily admit that sometimes stopping to help puts you in danger, particularly if there is a physical assault in progress, as what happened to victim in this case. Even trained police officers off-duty are cautious about this.

I stopped off-duty once to intervene in a man beating a woman on a sidewalk. I ended up in a knock-down drag out with the guy (which I won as I was not a woman) and took a straight razor off of him too. He kept trying to put his hand in that pocket, which I wouldn't allow because I suspected he had a knife there. The woman didn't interfere with me, but she did refuse to prosecute. I had my own charges anyway. I was also lucky, the incident happened across the street from a party store and I knew the owners. The adult son came over to help me keep the guy pinned while his dad called 911 for the cavalry.

However, not coming to the aid of an injured person, obviously bleeding and not just passed-out, is inexcusable. Call 911 if nothing else even if you think someone else might have done so.

The likelihood of being sued for rendering first aid in good faith to the best of your training or abilities is almost non-existent because of Good Sam laws. If you are sued, juries just tend to go with the Good Sam. You have to do something really intentionally stupid to get nailed (like putting handfuls of dirt into a wound to stop bleeding). Lawyers just won't take these Good Sam cases absent some off-the-wall first aid techniques.

[Dragonscript]

How the hell could they prove a trespassing charge when the idiot's wife gave your spouse permission to enter?

I understand what you're saying, i thought it was bull crap also but that's what the MPs told the wife and I. I'll still help someone if the need was there, I've stopped on the side of the road many times over the years to help push a car that was stalled or stuck, or help change a flat tire, but there is always that thought in the back of my mind "Am i going to get screwed by doing this?". I've a big believer in karma, i'm trying to build up a little credit for when my wife needs help and i can't be there.